April 2009 Edition
In This Issue:
Welcome Message
Welcome to the April 2009 edition of the
Innovation e-Review newsletter.
This month’s feature article, “Owning the Record – Whose e-Document is it Anyway”, by
Stephen M. Goodman, a partner at
Pryor Cashman LLP, elucidates the rationale behind several pivotal cases related to trade secret law and offers some practical suggestions on how to safeguard the value of your business by protecting your confidential business information.
This edition also highlights
e2e Materials, a clean technology company based in Ithaca, NY that makes petroleum-free, biodegradable composites from annually renewable resources, such as soy proteins and natural fibers. Their composites also offer the benefits of being stronger, lighter and cheaper than those found in landfills today.
The STLC’s series of podcasts continues on April 30th, with
George McGuire’s presentation on New Developments in Patent Law, and soon after, on May 12th,
Lisa Dolak will present on Establishing First-to-Invent & Electronic Lab Notebooks. Click
here for registration information.
Finally, the eighth annual
Smart Start Venture Forum will be held May 19th and 20th in Albany. This venture forum, sponsored by NYSTAR and NYS STLC among others, highlights new high-quality companies throughout New York, providing a good opportunity for VC firms and others to see the best the State has to offer.
As always, we welcome your thoughts and comments. Please feel free to contact us at
nysstlc@law.syr.edu. Thank you.
Feature Article: Owning the Record - Whose e-Document is It Anyway?
by Stephen M. Goodman
Reprinted with permission from
Pryor Cashman LLP and
Bloomberg Corporate Law JournalEvery successful business owner worries that the departure of a key employee may mean that critical business information is also walking out the door. Controlling confidential business information is part of building the value of a business, and losing control of that information can threaten that value.
In the past, when the information was only in paper form and making physical copies of documents was more challenging, it was easier for employers to keep the documents from being read by people outside the company. However, controlling the information has become much more difficult now that electronic media have become the primary means for creating and storing information and employers have made e-mail and electronic document systems available to all employees.
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Intellectual Property News: Supreme Court May Consider a New Defense to Patent Infringement
by Erin Lawless
The United States Supreme Court is being asked to expand the defenses available to defendants in a patent infringement suit on a petition for
certiorari from the District Court case
IGT v. Aristocrat Tech.
In this case, the gaming company IGT allegedly infringed two of Aristocrat Tech’s slot machine patents; however, Aristocrat Tech missed the filing deadline for the U.S. Patent and Trade Office (“PTO”) and therefore unintentionally abandoned its slot machine patent.
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Intellectual Property News: Patent Reform Legislation: Compromise Approved
by Melissa Dobson
On April 2, 2009, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a modified version of Patent Reform Bill, S. 515, with a sharply curtailed damages provision. The revised Patent Reform Act of 2009, passed on a vote of 15 to 4, allows for trial judges to limit the evidence that can be introduced and for damages calculation factors to be presented in the jury instructions. The bill eliminates any attempt to define an “essence of the invention”, without mention of limiting or eliminating the “entire market value” rule or applying “prior art subtraction” before determining a royalty base.
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Intellectual Property News: Gene Sequence Patent Attempt Fails Based on ‘Obvious to Try’ Standard
by Melissa Dobson
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently discredited its
In re Deuel precedent by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on obviousness in
KSR (See
KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 127 S. Ct. 1727, 82 USPQ2d 1385 (2007)). The Court of Appeals held that “well-known cloning techniques” could derive the “readily knowable and obtainable structure of an identified protein” coded by that gene (
In re Kubin, Fed. Cir., No. 2008-1184, 4/3/09).
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Company Spotlight: e2e Materials
by Melissa Dobson
e2e Materials is a clean technology company in Ithaca, New York that produces petroleum-free, biodegradable composites that are stronger, lighter and cheaper than the composites filling landfills today. e2e’s proprietary composite material platform can be tuned to achieve a range of strength properties reaching into midrange steels delivering tremendous strength-to-weight ratios. These biodegradable materials are made from annually renewable resources, including soy proteins and natural fibers, such as jute, flax and kenaf. The composites contain no formaldehyde, petrochemicals or toxins and are inherently flame retardant.
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Industry News: Saving on Patents: When Trade Secret Law Merits The Risk
by Erin Lawless
Everyone knows the economy is not at its best, but few know about the newest money-saving trick in patent law – to protect with trade secrets that which patents would usually be used to protect. The good news is that trade secrets are much cheaper than the traditional patent protections; however, they may come with greater risk.
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Grants and Funding Opportunities
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